An affordable option for building a cheap home library, 20th-century hardcover publishers book series included reprints of classics and publisher’s back catalog titles as well as newly commissioned titles. A few series dominated, such as Everyman’s Library and the Modern Library, but there are many others. These pages document the diversity of 20th-century reprint book series. Click on a series below for more information about the series.

Studies in English Literature

Edward Arnold’s Studies in English Literature series featured brief “studies of individual plays, novels and groups of poems and essays, which are known to be widely studied in Sixth Forms and in universities. The emphasis is on clarification and evaluation; biographical and historical facts, while they may of course be referred to as helpful to an understanding of particular elements in a writer’s work, will be subordinated to critical discussion.” (from the general introduction to the series).

The titles were first issued in 1961, with between 1 and 8 titles published each year (except 1980, with no new titles published) until the last title, the 76th in the series, in 1983. Reprints appear through 1990. Only one title (#16: Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing) was published out of chronological order. Paperback versions of the series were issued from the beginning, in 1961.

John Russel Brown’s Shakespeare: The Tempest was first published in the series in 1969. Jackets and bindings for hardcover copies of the series did not vary through its three decades. An abstract graphical pattern in shades of green dominates the spine and jacket front. The artwork was “photographed from Rosebank fabric” according to a note at the bottom of the front jacket flap. The series name and series number are at the top of the front of the jacket. The author, title, and author of the volume are included on the jacket front. A list of titles in the series spans the front and rear jacket flap. A sticker with a 70p price covers the original price printed on the jacket flap.

The fabric pattern from the front of the jacket continues on the back. Titles up to #40 (first published in 1969) are listed, as is an ISBN and “Printed in Great Britain” indication.

Green cloth bindings with gold typography.

The half-title page includes the series name, series number and general editor (David Daiches).

The title page:

The copyright page includes the copyright to the author, the year of publication (1969), and ISBN for the cloth and paper editions. The book was printed in Great Britain by the Camelot Press Ltd., London, and Southampton. A general preface to the series follows.